It's funny how, as a kid, I didn't really notice how three of four different composers could be represented in a patchwork episode. And as an adult, sometimes I expect an album cue to veer off as it did in an episode because I'm so used to it.

I tried cobbling together a few tracked episodes and not only is it an arduous task, but a tough listening experience sometimes. Balance of Terror alone can have three different episode scores in a one minute battle sequence. Or the opening of Errand of Mercy. Just for the Klingon attack there is music from Where No Man (cut and pasted from two spots), then Naked Time, What Are Little Girls Made Of and a final burst from Where No Man again. Yikes! And those guys did with by physically splicing tape!

For me, the best tracked score is "This Side of Paradise." It just works.

I've been trying to nail down, on paper at least, the "Requiem for Methuselah" medley of love themes for Rayna in the Lab, when Kirk dictates his log entry and then finds her staring at the factory door. It's a gorgeous suite.

This is really rough-hewn, and I haven't even gone looking yet for the danger stinger that comes at the end (probably from "Spock's Brain"):

This Side of Paradise leans WAY too hard on "2nd Ruth." Every damned dewy eyed glace between Spock and Leila gets the theme. Even for a very few moments as Spock kisses her before going back to the ship at the end gets it. To the point where even I, the fan who pretty much forgives EVERYTHING on the series, roll my eyes really hard. It taints the episode for me. That, and the absolutely dire performance by Jill Ireland, keeps this episode out of my regular rotation.

What DOES sell this episode for me is Shatner. He is on fire in this one in the final half. "I...can't...LEAVE!" and then his blistering tirade to anger Spock. Since it had to be suitable for TV, it couldn't be too offensive in print, but Shatner's delivery makes it poisonous.

Now, for perfect tracking of music, I go with Return of the Archons. Lovely use of their musical inventory, from the opening panic chords by Mullendore, through the lonely Courage work over the episode title flyby montage and through the mid-episode townspeople attack with the gorgeous "Monster Illusion (Rigel VII)" music. F'n perfect.

Sometimes, I listen to the CDs and picture not the episode the music was written for, but for where it worked in a tracked episode. "Rigel VII" is one such piece.

Now, for perfect tracking of music, I go with Return of the Archons. Lovely use of their musical inventory, from the opening panic chords by Mullendore, through the lonely Courage work over the episode title flyby montage and through the mid-episode townspeople attack with the gorgeous "Monster Illusion (Rigel VII)" music. F'n perfect.

Now that you mention it, I guess I took the gestalt of "Archons" for granted, but I always wanted a chance to hear "The Big Go" (as it's now known) when Kirk's landing party arrives on the street. And of course they started cutting it for syndication, both in this episode and "The Naked Time."

Luckily I had it taped before the syndy airings went downhill, but I still wanted to hear it on television. In the pre-VCR, pre-GNP era, if you hadn't made your audio tapes by a certain point, you were doomed to walk the night, bereft of the very music that gave life meaning.

I had only seen the series uncut a few times in syndication. WPIX always sliced it randomly until the 80's, when they got the Paramount pre-cut episodes. Only two Connecticut stations we got from having our antenna on a rotor ran them complete: WTNH and WTXX. WTNH actually included the previews for the next episode.

WVIA-44, a Pennsylvania PBS station, ran them uncut for a very short time but then switched over to the 45 minute episodes without warning: and for no good reason. There were no commercials to make time for. However, they did run the series 3 episodes in a row on Saturday nights.

By that time, I started getting the episodes on VHS either in the single episode retail releases or the Columbia House/CBS Video Library. So some music cues were heard for the first time by me. Those were exciting times as a fan.